Asterias forbesi central

William Grossman's Thoughts

I am one of the collectors at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. Yes, we absolutely have noticed the die off since last fall. The first I noticed anything was when I collected about 100 animals from the Cape Cod Canal and they all died in a matter of days in our flow through system. We even went out and dredged in many of our more productive areas within Vineyard and Nantucket sounds. There were areas thick with crepidula and other foods, still with no signs of stars. We have noticed small stars begining to show up in the Cape Cod Canal and out in the sound about 2 months ago. Today I collected about a dozen 3" to 4" animals out in Vineyard Sound. This has created quite some talk here, especially with some of the summer courses, such as Embryology, Frontiers in Reproductions and Physiology. Our aquatic vet Amy Hancock I believe has taken cultures.

Another person who has had some experience with stars is a gentleman named Martk who runs Biomes out of RI. He has a closed system and found new stars died within a day after being put into any tanks which had previously held asterias forbesi.

I have seen Asterias vulgaris in Cape Cod Bay. Perhaps the cooler water did not have the same effects.

Chris Littlefield's Thoughts

Head of the Block Island chapter of the RI Nature Conservancy

“I was not aware of that but it’s good news for shellfish. I wonder if it is related to flashy rainfall events? I know that when they migrate into the shallows in the summer here that a lot get washed up on the beach but I had not heard of an actual die off

I know there are a lot in certain places here and in the coastal ponds. We get really large ones in Great Salt Pond and I have seen them aggregate in certain spots, presumably for spawning?”

Jon Witman's Thoughts

Brown Professor

I have heard a little about this in S. New England, but nothing from the gulf of Maine where all my sea star baseline data is from. It could be low salinity or disease

Kevin Cute's Thoughts

(Aquatic Invasive Species or AIS monitoring)

We focus our sampling activities on floating docks where you might expect to find Asterias forbesi but I don’t recall having noticed them in abundance

We are however expanding our monitoring this year to include eelgrass beds and bulkheads at the Port of Providence and Quonset/Davisville, so we’ll have increased opportunities to keep an eye open on your behalf

I’ll pass the word along to my monitoring network to keep an eye out for large populations of A. forbesi and to record any such instances on their filed data sheets

Mark Bertness' Thoughts

Marine ecologist at Brown (EEB Dept. chair)

•There is no mystery here. This happens every few years. Starfish have no way to osmoregulate and have no way to bail out freshwater. That's why there are no freshwater starfish, sea urchins or corals

•What happens in Narragansett Bay is that pelagic baby starfish settle in the bay. They may be fine for a few years, but then we'll have a spring with intense concentrated rain that leaves a large lens of freshwater covering the bay that coincides with spring (large) tides. The tide goes out, exposing the starfish to freshwater, which flows into the starfish water vascular system and they pop like balloons

Ed Baker's Thoughts

Tank caretaker at GSO

•GSO tank: "[last fall] in Dr Wessel's sea star tanks the die off began and slowly rolled through the population (2 months) of the tank while the tank next to it had no mortalities in its sea star community

•They received the same water supply and the sea stars had been held for a couple of years in the other tank. It would seem that the malady is not readily vectored by the sea water. Also, both tanks experienced low flow events from time to time (obstructed valve) where they probably experienced low DO and an increase in temperature.

•One could see ahead of time the onset of the malady where the arm(s) would become irregular in shape and become narrower close to the body. Eventually, the arm(s) would detach from the body but seemed to "live" for a couple days; evidenced by moving tube feet

•Upon death the arm(s) or what was left of the body would flatten and begin to disintegrate. I did see a lesion on the top side of an arm where the flesh had "blossomed" into a 1/2 diameter dome and had a cauliflower type appearance

•Upon touch it was very soft and this consistency extended into the flesh of the arm much like a rotten spot on fruit.